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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

NJOA EP: Quail in the Classroom gets deserved recognition

Congratulations to Pola Galie for the coverage and recognition she is receiving for her Quail in the Classroom project. Quail in the Classroom is part of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance Environmental Projects (EP), President, Ed Markoswki.

Below is a link to pictures of Quail in the Classroom at a school in Waretown, NJ. They were published in yesterday's Asbury Park Press.

Below is coverage of Pola's Quail in the Classroom Project published in "The Sandpaper.Net"

The Tuckerton Seaport is expecting; 120 fluffy peeps, or baby quail, should be hatching any day now as part of the [New Jersey Outdoor Alliance EP] Quail in the Classroom Project. Folklife Center Director Jaclyn Stewart Wood said the Seaport is one of only two public organizations in the state besides schools to participate in the program; The Barnyard Sanctuary in Blairstown, Warren County, is the other.

The Seaport took possession of 120 eggs and an incubator about 20 days ago and have them on display on the ground floor of the Visitors Center. Once they hatch, they will be moved to a fly pen being constructed behind the center, where they will remain for another two or three weeks.

"They can only stay in the brood pen for five days, and then they need to be moved or they won't learn to fly," Wood said. The quail will then be released into the wild.

"Part of the quail program is to teach people about conservation," said Wood. "We teach them about nesting habitats and (the quails') life cycle out in the woods."

As part of the April Arts celebration at the Tuckerton Seaport, adults and children were invited to paint quail "flatties," one-sided decoys made by decoy carver George Ross.

Statewide, the distribution of eggs and incubators is being coordinated by Paula Galie, operations manager of the Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education in Waretown.

Twelve schools in New Jersey are participating in Quail in the Classroom, including Pinelands Regional Junior High School and Waretown Elementary School. Galie said the need for awareness of quail habitat loss is paramount. "There are less then 3,000 wild quail in New Jersey; the numbers have been going down steadily in the last 40 years."

Besides raising the birds, participants must also do a habitat project of some kind, said Galie. This could be a PowerPoint demonstration on the need for habitat restoration, for instance. "The birds have been in New Jersey for eons, and there is a limited season on them as a game bird. Besides commercial hunting reserves, there are only two places in the state where they can still be hunted, and that's Greenwood Fish and Wildlife Management Area in Ocean County and Peaslee down south," in Cumberland County.

Besides habitat loss, the birds are heavily predated by hawks and other raptors and by mammals such as coyotes, raccoons and fox. "Only about 10 percent of the predation is done by free-roaming pets or feral cats," Galie said.

The Tuckerton Seaport and the Lighthouse Center are the only sites that will have fly pens for the fledgling quail. Once the birds hatch in the schools, Galie will collect the survivors.

"When they hatch, they are about the size of a bumblebee, little fur balls that peep," she said. After the birds are raised in the fly pen for about six months, they are returned to the wild, where they face slim chances of survival.

"It takes them about six weeks to realize that we are not coming with food. If they do learn things on their own and make it to the winter months, they need about eight birds in a covey (group) to huddle and survive the climate. This is the second year of the program, and we have gone out and called for them; they are all banded, and there have been some survivors."

The eggs come from a commercial breeding company. The incubated and domesticated quail unfortunately don't have much of a chance of replenishing the population in the wild, said Andrew Burnett, a principal biologist with the DEP Bureau of Wildlife Management.

"The Quail in the Classroom project is really designed to raise awareness of what quail need in terms of habitat," he said. "The raised quail are kept for about a month, and then Galie collects them. Last year we released about 75 birds, but there is a high mortality rate (in the wild). There's lots of predation, and should they breed, the likelihood of the chicks being raised by the hen is slim. It's a learned behavior; it's not instinctual."

Burnett said quail also need varied habitat, something they won't find in the Pinelands. "In the spring, they need grasslands in which to make their nest; in the summer they need broadleaf weeds or agricultural lands that provide a lot of insects for them to feed on. In late fall and winter, they need brushy woodlands to take refuge in.

"When New Jersey had a lot of chicken farms, we had a lot of quail, but over the years the forest has taken over, and quail are not an interior-forest species."

Comments

Congratulations to Pola Galie for the coverage and recognition she is receiving for her Quail in the Classroom project. Quail in the Classroom is part of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance Environmental Projects (EP), President, Ed Markoswki.

Below is a link to pictures of Quail in the Classroom at a school in Waretown, NJ. They were published in yesterday's Asbury Park Press.

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My name is William E. Cleary Sr. I started my newspaper career in 1966 at the age of 21. I am the former owner, publisher and editor of the Gloucester City News Inc., (GCN) a weekly newspaper. The Gloucester City News, located in Gloucester City NJ, was incorporated in 1929. Our family owned the paper from 1948 to 2005. We also owned the Camden County Record, a weekly with circulation in the City of Camden NJ. We no longer own either paper.
Looking for another avenue to express our views we launched ClearysNoteBook (CNBNews.net) on July 31, 2006. Over the past eight years we have accumulated 29,009 total posts, 21,332 total comments and 4,796,711 lifetime page views. Those numbers change daily and are updated once a year on the anniversary of this news site.
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Graffiti is becoming a problem in the City of Gloucester City NJ. The 40 plus photos were taken by resident Bill Waters in August 2008.
Mr. Waters is asking people to call police and report anyone who they see painting graffiti in our community. "Take a moment to get involved. Help stop this problem before it becomes too late."

The photos were taken at random from several Gloucester High School and Gloucester Catholic year books along with some photos of a few class reunions. If you have a photo (s) you like to submit send it along with a description to BillGCN@verizon.net.

Since the first get-together in May the Breakfast Cllub continues to grow as the word keeps spreading about the monthly get-together. Although each one is much older as far as they are concerned nobody has really changed. They still feel like the same guys who use to hang at the Pool Room, on Tuckers Corner, at Powells, Gords, The Sports Corner, The Crown Point etc..... renewing old friendships and laughing about memories of the good old days...if you are interested in attending they meet the fourth Saturday of each month at the Train Depot in Gloucester City at 10 a.m.

By Lois Lane, gossip columnist for ClearysNoteBook
The Gloucester City Breakfast Club had a huge turnout for their December 29 meeting held at the Dining Car Depot, Monmouth Street at the Railroad. Some thirty-nine men were in attendance.
Hank Miller won the prize for coming the longest distance.Breakfast_club_december_07_003 The former Gloucester resident, who writes the column When East Meets West for ClearysNoteBook, flew in from his home in Kitakyushu City, Japan just for the breakfast.
Winning second place was former Gloucesterite Jack Bowe, who traveled from St. Louis Missouri to see his friends. Third was Bill Wibby Yeager who drove from Dover, Delaware. Fourth and Fifth Place goes to Butch Shaffer (Cape May) and Ron Raube (Mays Landing). The winners each received a second cup of coffee at no charge plus all the water they could drink.
El Presidente Chas Pitzo announced that Bill Cleary has resigned as treasurer and Jack Heiser volunteered to take his place. Pitzo gave a treasury report stating there was $400 in the account.
Speaking of Cleary he was the winner of the 50-50 this month. Since he was chosen to pick the stub out of the bucket some members thought he shouldn't be eligible to Breakfast_club_december_07_006 win. The executive board held an emergency meeting and ruled he could keep the prize ($19.02) as long as he picked up the tab for everyone's breakfast. Needless to say when it came time to pay the check Cleary was no where to be found.
Besides those already mentioned others in attendance included: Sam Chew, Frank Grandizio, Tom and Bud Wrigley, John Lang, Joe Boulden, Bob Bevan, Frank Cipolone, Bob Sliwa, Jack Persichetti, Ron Middleton, Joe DiGiacomo, Earl Kaighn, Walt Hall, Stu Rechard, Tom Moody.
Also, Gary Marcucci, John Hindsley, Joe Raube, Rick Gonzales, Jim and Harry Blymer, Mike Bowe, Joe Miller, Chalie Tourtual, Harry Walker, Tom ChooChoo Murphy, and Bob Bevan.
The next meeting, Saturday, January 26 at 9 AM. To become a member you must be a male, be able to eat breakfast and enjoy laughing. Also you need to know the answer to this question……where was the Charles Street Stadium located? Just in case you need a hint it was somewhere in Gloucester City.